Need some good reading material? Here’s a quick recap of the top IP news stories we loved diving into this month!
- “I licensed a great deal of intellectual property. We did a count once; I had 20 different licensees. Some of them were the largest orthopedic companies in the world. Some of them were the largest spine companies in the world and a couple of them were just startups that had no other product but the single product I licensed to them.” – How Billionaire Inventor Dr. Gary Michelson Negotiates Licensing Deals, Forbes
- “IPwe, a platform for the world’s IP ecosystem, today announced that it plans to begin representing corporate patents as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in collaboration with major computer company IBM.” – IBM Is Turning Patents Into NFTs, Decrypt
- “When Biden was sworn in as president in January, he and Vice President Kamala Harris received a letter from the executive director of Innovation Alliance urging the administration to empower the U.S. patent system. The executive director argued that the system needs strengthening.” – How The Biden Administration Could Shape IP Policy — And How Businesses Can Prepare, Forbes
- “Already a market leader, Peloton benefited spectacularly from the pandemic, minting founder John Foley as a billionaire. But it still has unfinished business: fending off competitors with lawsuits accusing them of copying the technology built into its $2,000-plus stationary bikes.” – Peloton’s ‘Revolutionary’ Technology Faces Test in Patent Wars, Bloomberg
- “By re-recording her first album (the songs sound almost identical to the original version) and changing the title ever-so-slightly, Swift regained control of a nearly identical version of the master album. […] This is must-read material for every artist, entrepreneur and lawyer. Swift just offered us all a master class in contract law and artists’ rights.” – Songwriter U: What Can We Learn About Copyrights, Contracts From Taylor Swift, American Songwriter
- “There are no categories for these innovations, which are reshaping our world in real-time. The problem? When patent classifications don’t actually classify inventions, we have no way of knowing how many inventions in these categories are being registered.” – Why the Patent Classification System Needs an Update, IPWatchdog
Final tidbits: For more IP news see great interactive NYT deep-dive into the fashion trademark intricacies of Virgil Abloh/OFFWhite; NFTs keep coming up, check it out this informative attorney interview in LA Mag; see continued debates on Covid-related patents in The Economist
_________
The Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property, an initiative of the Michelson 20MM Foundation, addresses critical gaps in intellectual property education to empower the next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs. Michelson 20MM was founded thanks to the generous support of renowned spinal surgeon Dr. Gary K. Michelson and Alya Michelson. To learn more, visit 20mm.org.